Course Introduction
In 2026, the United States marks its 250th anniversary — a milestone known as Freedom250, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The semiquincentennial invites reflection not only on the nation’s founding ideals, but also on the evolving meaning of liberty, democracy, citizenship, and national identity across two and a half centuries.
In this lecture, Professor Christov approaches the American experiment not as a completed achievement, but as an unfinished journey. Divided into three parts — past, present, and future — the talk reflects on where America began, where it stands today, and what responsibilities the next chapter may demand.
About the Speaker
Professor Christov received his PhD in Political Theory from UCLA in 2008. He holds an MTS from Harvard and a BA from Thomas Aquinas College. From 2008-11 he was Visiting Assistant Professor of political theory at Northwestern University. In 2011 he joined the faculty at George Washington University, where he teaches in the University's Honors Program and the Department of History. He is also Faculty Affiliate at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Elliott School and serves on the faculty advisory committee of the Peace Studies Program.
His research interests lie in the fields of intellectual history, particularly 17th and 18th centuries, and modern political and international thought; the history of international law; and classical theories of international relations. He is the author of Before Anarchy: Hobbes and His Critics in Modern International Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2015 with a paperback edition 2017, which examines European debates over the external relations of states in the works of Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Vattel, and how these early modern debates have been de-historicized in contemporary international relations.
He teaches Honors proseminars on the origins and evolution of modern political and social thought from antiquity to modernity, and History seminars on intellectual history from the 16th century to the present and on the Enlightenment and its critics.